Not applicable.
Conventional pulse processing electronics for detectors and sensors consume relatively large amounts of power and are often unsuitable for use outside the laboratory because of their size. Lower power charge preamplifier circuits have been successfully developed. However, for long term unattended monitoring applications, the entire pulse processing system (preamplifier, shaping amplifier, sample-hold) must also be a very low power solution. Also, due to system-size constraints and ease of use it is highly desirable to integrate said pulse-processor system onto a single silicon chip. No such system exists at the present time. The system described herein satisfies this unmet need in the technology. It is particularly useful for processing the signals from semiconductor radiation detectors but can be used for other detector and sensor signals as well.
The system of circuits disclosed herein is intended to perform the same functions as the separate charge sensitive amplifier, shaping amplifier, and peak sample and hold systems already in use in the prior art. However, the present system was created to minimize packaging volume and power consumption and is intended to be implemented as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). This core system can be designed to interface with an off-chip flash analog to digital converter (ADC) for subsequent height analysis, or the system can be expanded to include the ADC, with or without its drivers, as part of the ASIC albeit with a higher power budget. Low average power for the present system is achieved by making the high current functions enabled only when the desired input pulse amplitude is detected. Novel circuit design techniques are used to minimize power consumption while providing good linearity and low-noise circuit performance.